Economic Security

Calvary Women's Services: When you're serious about making a change.

Posted on by Kris Thompson

Irene, a woman who lives at Calvary Women’s Shelter, recently said, “Calvary’s where you go when you’re serious about making a change.”

Irene credits her own new direction in life to the support she has received at Calvary. “Now, I do what I have to do. I just work on changing from the inside out.”

The J. Jill Compassion Fund was created to help women like Irene.  Each year it awards grants to organizations that help low-income and homeless women become self-sufficient. Calvary Women’s Services was selected as one of 28 organizations across the country to receive a $10,000 grant from the Compassion Fund. This grant helps us continue to provide homeless women in Washington, D.C. with “a safe, caring place for tonight; support, hope and change for tomorrow.”

Each year, we support 150 women as they journey from homelessness to self-sufficiency. Many of the women in our programs have experienced both drug addiction and mental health problems.  Many are survivors of domestic violence.

And all of them have known what it’s like to be without a safe, stable place to live.

Our programs work with women as individuals to empower them to take control of their own lives—helping them not only find permanent housing, but also to address some of the reasons they became homeless. Because our programs are small, our staff can provide personalized support to each woman as she works to become self-sufficient.

Each year, 60 percent of the women who come to Calvary move into their own homes. Many others take positive steps to prepare for independent living.

Earlier this year, The Women’s Foundation recognized Calvary’s work with a Leadership Award in recognition of our work with low-income women and their families.  In addition, they have been providing support for our communications and marketing efforts as part of their technical assistance "beyond the check."     

Kris Thompson is the Executive Director of Calvary Women’s Services, recognized as a 2009 Leadership Awardee by The Women’s Foundation.  Learn more about them on their Web site or on Facebook.

Stepping Stones Research Update – July 2009

Posted on by Liza Getsinger

As part of our ongoing commitment – in partnership with The Urban Institute – to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below a summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families. This research is summarized and complied for The Women’s Foundation by Liza Getsinger of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Below are excerpts of the research update.  For the full research update, including summarized key findings, click here.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

The National Council of Negro Women conducts a study to identify potential lending disparities in gender and race among African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian borrowers, particularly as the foreclosure crisis spreads.  (Full text) 

Jobs and Business Ownership News

The Brookings Institution publishes research on the extent to which the recession has affected urban and suburban communities across the country and looks looks within the nation’s 100 largest metro areas to examine recent unemployment trends in their cities and suburbs. (Abstract) (Full text)

Child Care and Early Education News

A new Child Trends study commissioned by the Council of Chief State School Officers finds disparities between poor, at-risk children and more advantaged children as early as 9 months of age–extending prior research that primarily focuses on disparities at kindergarten entry and beyond. (Abstract) (Full text)

Health and Safety News

The Urban Institute identifies ways to reduce obesity using many of the same strategies used in the war against tobacco.  (Introduction) (Full text)

Other News and Research

The Economic Mobility Project investigates neighborhoods and the black-white mobility gap, including whether neighborhood poverty in childhood impacts the ability of both black and white adults to move up or down the income ladder relative to the position their parents held and whether changes in neighborhood poverty rates experienced by black children affected their adult incomes, earnings, and wealth. (Abstract) (Full text)

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending July 31, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.  For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• The Los Angeles Times covers Planned Parenthood’s fight to use tobacco settlement money to fund a breast health program to reach lower-income women under 40, who are at a higher risk for breast cancer.

• Boulder County’s nutrition program for low-income mothers and their children has expanded the selection of food it offers to include healthy fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, as reported by the Daily Camera.

• The Boston Globe applauds Rev. William McCarthy’s achievement of building a support network for battered women and the homeless.

• An “unusual” Fairfax Country program is raising a single low-income mother’s self-esteem by providing career counseling and other support, according to the Washington Post.

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlights the story of a single mom, deserted by her husband, who now struggles on the brink of homelessness along with her two children.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Helping prevent proposed cuts to D.C.'s safety net will help low-income women. Join us.

Posted on by Gwen Rubinstein

The stock market may be going up – but, unfortunately, other economic indicators, such as unemployment and homelessness are, too.

This means continued down times for many D.C. families, particularly low-income, women-headed families.

To make matters worse, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is proposing cuts to key social welfare programs that more and more residents are turning to in their time of increasing need.  Specifically:

  • Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Proposed cut: $6.2 million. According to Stepping Stones Grantee Partner, DC Women’s Agenda (DCWA), about 50,000 low-income parents and children in DC receive TANF, and 90% of the adults in these families are women. The current TANF benefit for a family of three is the same as it was in 1991 – and provides families with only 29% of the poverty line;
  • Workforce Development. Proposed cut: $5.4 million. According to U.S. Department of Labor (based on data reported by the city), more than half of the adults in the publicly funded workforce development system in the city are women;
  • Adult Literacy. Proposed cut: $2 million. According to the DC government, a majority (55.1%) of those served in publicly funded adult literacy programs in the city in 2007 were women; and,
  • Local Rent Supplement Program. Proposed cut: $2 million. Originally an addition to the budget by the City Council, this funding would have extended housing assistance to an additional 180 families, mostly headed by women, according to DCWA. Now it is in serious jeopardy, as are the additional families that could have benefited.

Local groups (including many Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation), under the umbrella of the Coalition for Community Investment, have organized the Save our Safety Net Coalition to help prevent these cuts from being realized.

I urge you to join them in the fight against these damaging cuts.

Gwen Rubinstein is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation.

Minimum wage increased: Happy raise, ladies!

Posted on by Gwen Rubinstein

My thoughts today are with all of the working women (and it is mostly women) who got a raise today when the federal minimum wage increased to $7.25.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up more than two-thirds (67.8%) of hourly workers paid the minimum wage, even though nearly the same number of women and men work in jobs paid hourly rates.

This increase is undoubtedly a welcome help to many low-income, women-headed families in our region.  While it only adds up to $112 per month (pre-tax), for someone working full time, it is more than a 10% increase over the previous minimum wage of $6.55.

Still, much remains to be done to improve the economic security of low-income, women-headed families, including further attention to the minimum wage.  Even with this increase, today’s workers are still behind, compared to 20 years ago, when the minimum wage was $2.90 – which is $8.62 in 2009 dollars.

Gwen Rubinstein is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending July 20, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. 

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.   

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.  

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.    

Here’s this week’s news: 

  • An editorial in The Wall Street Journal argues that the least-skilled groups, including “welfare moms,” will be hurt the most by an upcoming minimum wage hike.
  • A domestic violence shelter that offers safe haven for women with nowhere else to go reopened thanks to funding from a local philanthropy group and the United Way, as reported by The Chicago Tribune.
  • Women living in New Orleans participated in protests demanding that the Housing Authority of New Orleans provide them with long-anticipated housing vouchers, according to a Times-Picayune article.
  • The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviews Judy Bannon, a woman who has campaigned to ensure that low-income mothers are able to provide their children with a safe place to sleep.
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer profiles the mostly female volunteers who feed the hungry and homeless through a cooking contest sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.
  • The Washington Post covers the critical situation in D.C. hospitals, which are seeing increasing numbers of patients, including several low-income women profiled by the article, going to emergency rooms to receive primary care.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.  

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team 

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending July 10, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Monday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• A scholarship program designed to help single mothers out of poverty plans to shift their fund-raising efforts into overdrive after learning that the Massachusetts state budget eliminates their public funding, as reported by The Boston Globe.

• Traditionally male-dominated industries are experiencing a much bigger hit in the recession than female-dominated industries, causing women to suffer much lower unemployment rates nationally, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

• A New York Times report on the surge of families who are becoming homeless as the school year ends includes interviews with several mothers struggling to find housing for themselves and their children.

• The Boston Globe reports that the number of female service members who have become homeless after leaving the military has jumped dramatically in recent years, according to new government estimates.

• A Los Angeles Times article on a new summer program for children in inner-city Los Angeles includes an interview with a mother who credits a similar program with her children’s safety and success.

• The New York Times covers a story about two elderly women who promote recycling at General Grant Houses, a sprawling Harlem public housing development.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending July 3, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty. 

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty. 

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit the Washington Area Women’s Foundation for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.  

Here’s this week’s news:

  • In an interview with the Washington Post, Secretary of Labor Linda Solis states that many minimum-wage workers are single mothers, and that they cannot fairly be expected to raise a family on the federal minimum wage.
  • A USA Today article discussing the critical role of a pregnant mother’s health in her child’s development highlights a Washington, D.C. clinic for healthy births with a clientele including a number of low-income mothers-to-be.
  • The New York Times interviews several low-income women who will be benefitting from an increase in New York State welfare benefits.
  • In a piece profiling a program offering college experience to the homeless, the New York Times profiles several homeless single mothers juggling class and child care.
  • In its coverage of cuts to summer school programs, the New York Times interviews several low-income girls who will be losing summer classes as well as their mothers, who are concerned that their children are losing enriching programs.
  • In an article detailing summer school feeding programs, the Washington Post notes the benefits to a low-income girl and the relief experienced by her mother.
  • The Macon Telegraph reports on a woman whose house, which also is home to her 97-year-old mother, will be insulated by stimulus weatherization funds for low-income and disabled homeowners.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Stepping Stones Research Update – June 2009

Posted on by Liza Getsinger

As part of our ongoing commitment – in partnership with The Urban Institute – to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below a summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families. This research is summarized and complied for The Women’s Foundation by Liza Getsinger of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.  

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

The Urban Institute provides statistics on the work effort, earnings, health care access and other characteristics of low-income families. (Abstract) (Full Text)

 Jobs and Business Ownership News

The Brookings Institution investigates the accessibility of middle-wage jobs — good paying jobs for the less-educated workers — for those without bachelor’s degrees in 204 metropolitan areas. (Abstract) (Full Text)

Child Care and Early Education

The National Institute for Early Education Research examines the journeys of six states — Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Illinois, New York, and West Virginia — in achieving a plan for preschool for all. (Intro) (Full Text)

Health and Safety News

The Urban Institute explores the unique experiences of women exiting prison, focusing on a representative sample of 142 women who were released from Texas prisons and state jails in 2005 and returned to Houston communities. (Intro) (Full Text)

Other News and Research

The Urban Institute provides comprehensive data indicators and analysis on the state of older youth (age 12-24) in the District and examines  the role of area nonprofits that work with young people, their families, and neighborhoods. (Abstract) (Full Text)

Stepping Stones Research Update – May 2009

Posted on by Liza Getsinger

As part of our ongoing commitment – in partnership with The Urban Institute – to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below a summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and complied for The Women’s Foundation by Liza Getsinger of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News
The Urban Institute looks at the likelihood that nonelderly individuals in families with children experience substantial drops in family income and recoveries from such drops. (Intro) (Full Text)

Jobs and Business Ownership News
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research looks at wage differences between men and women across several different occupations. (Full Text)

Child Care and Early Education News
ChildTrends shows research findings on the link between program quality and children’s outcomes among state and federal government invested programs in early care and education. (Intro) (Full Text)

Health and Safety News
The Kaiser Family Foundation explores how problems obtaining oral health and dental care disproportionately affect low-income and minority children. (Intro) (Full Text)

Other News and Research
The Urban Institute documents the extent to which foreclosures in Washington D.C. have occurred in renter-occupied homes and apartments, and outlines several policy options for helping renters during this difficult period. (Abstract) (Full Text)